Local Lawyer Disbarred Over Ethics

Variety Of Offenses Cited In Virginia State Bar Case

October 07, 1994

DAILY PRESS — A Hampton Roads lawyer who bounced checks on his lawyer's trust account, didn't file appeals on time and dropped a client at a crucial moment has been disbarred for repeated violations of lawyer ethics, the Virginia State Bar says.

Salvage Delacy Stith, who had offices in Portsmouth but practiced in Suffolk, Virginia Beach and other Hampton Roads courts, was disbarred for a variety of offenses that occurred after he'd received a reprimand and temporary suspensions of his law license for previous offenses, a statement issued by the bar says.

The Virginia State Bar, a state agency all lawyers must belong to, polices and enforces the state's code of conduct for lawyers.

According to the bar's statement, Stith bounced two checks drawn on his lawyer's trust account at Crestar Bank in May and June 1991. The checks totaled $200.

When the bar began investigating in March of the following year and continued investigating through February 1993, it found that Stith did not have the records from that checking account.

Stith said he also didn't record deposits and withdrawals from the account and at times put his own money into the account to cover checks, the bar statement says.

The bar's rules require that lawyers use their trust accounts to handle only client funds. Furthermore, lawyers are prohibited from combining their own money with client funds.

Stith also represented several clients in criminal cases and was found to have violated the rules by not adequately fulfilling his duties, the bar says.

In one case Stith failed to order a transcript for an appeal he filed on behalf of a man who was convicted of being an habitual offender in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

In another case, Stith refused to continue to represent someone during an appeal.

In yet another matter, he missed the deadline for filing an appeal for a man convicted of drug distribution and then failed to tell the man that the appeal had been dismissed.

The man Stith was appointed to represent "learned of this only through his own inquiry of the Court of Appeals," the bar statement says.

Stith now must notify all of his clients that his law license has been revoked, the bar says.